According to Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes, however, Faulkner himself--his curiosity, his enthusiasm and best of all, his credible testimony--make him one of his field's own best advertisements.
In February, when Holmes prepared to put Faulkner on the stand to testify about Eubanks, the slain construction worker who was found near Ojai, the prosecutor was apprehensive.
"I thought everybody would be reaching for their air-sickness bags," he said.
But, when Faulkner testified that he had found a "cheeseskipper" fly, which usually lays eggs only after a corpse has been dead for about three weeks, jurors listened attentively--and without apparent revulsion--Holmes said. In a largely circumstantial case, he said, Faulkner's testimony played a vital role in winning a conviction.
"He was crucial to show the time of death. . . . The autopsy could narrow it to a certain extent, but not to the extent that he could," Holmes said. "I interviewed the jurors afterward, and they found his testimony fascinating. He was fabulous. I would call upon him again in a heartbeat."
